Tom Petty’s Bandmate Said Petty Was Like ‘Bob Dylan and Keith Richards in One Guy’
Tom Petty and his bandmates in the Heartbreakers worked together for decades, so they knew one another quite well. They also got to know other celebrated musicians over their years in show business. According to Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell, Petty reminded him of two big names in music: Bob Dylan and Keith Richards. He explained that this had to do with his personality, not his musical abilities.
Tom Petty and his bandmates toured with Bob Dylan
In 1985, Petty and the Heartbreakers served as Dylan’s backing band at Farm Aid. The show went over so well that Dylan invited them to join him on a tour of Australia.
“We backed him up at Farm Aid and it went really well,” Petty said, per American Songwriter. “And then afterwards in the trailer, Bob came back and said, ‘Hey, what would you think of doing a tour? I’ve got a tour of Australia [1986] I want to do, and what would you guys think of doing that?’ And we’d all been huge Dylan fans, and we were very intrigued by the idea of playing with Bob. So off we went. And that went on for two years. We’d do part of it and then more would get added on, and then more would get added on. We really did the world with Bob Dylan.”
Petty explained that he grew close to Dylan over the two years they toured together.
“One of the nicest things about Bob is that he’s an honest guy. Really, really honest,” Petty said. “Not someone who would ever lie. Not someone who would blow his own horn. And I enjoyed all those years of working with him, and I think we had a genuine friendship. Still do. We had a lot of long talks.”
Tom Petty’s bandmate said Petty reminded him of Bob Dylan and Keith Richards
After working closely with Dylan for two years, Campbell also had a good sense of who he was as a person. He said that he saw bits of Dylan in Petty, but he was also balanced out with similarities to Richards.
“He’s got a very powerful opinion, and he’s usually right,” Campbell told Canoe in 2010, per The Petty Archives. “But he’s a great boss, a great leader, a great force. It’s like having Bob Dylan and Keith Richards in one guy.”
He explained that this type of personality was part of what helped the Heartbreakers stay together for decades.
“He’s stern when he needs to be, but he’s also democratic,” Campbell explained. “And we’ve been together this long, so obviously it works out well.”
The Heartbreakers singer said he admired both Bob Dylan and Keith Richards
Petty listened to Dylan and the Stones when he was growing up and greatly admired both groups. He believed that Dylan had a significant impact on his songwriting.
“He influenced my songwriting, of course. He influenced everybody’s songwriting,” Petty explained. “There’s no way around it. No one had ever really left the love song before, lyrically. So in that respect, I think he influenced everybody, because you suddenly realized you could write about other things.”
He also saw The Rolling Stones as an early influence. After falling in love with The Beatles, the Stones seemed like another example of music Petty could one day play. It gave him the inspiration he needed to pursue music.
